Abstract
Previous research has shown that youth consider school-based child abuse prevention programs as one of the most important strategies for preventing child abuse and neglect. This study asked young child abuse survivors how school-based child abuse prevention programs should be shaped and what program components they perceive as essential. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 Dutch young adults that were a victim of child abuse or neglect. A literature review that resulted in 12 potential program components was used to guide the interviews. All young adults agreed that school-based child abuse prevention programs are important and have positive effects on children’s awareness of child abuse. Teaching children that they are never to blame for child abuse occurrences was considered one of the most important components of school-based programs, next to teaching children how to escape from threatening situations and to find help, increasing children’s social–emotional skills, promoting child abuse related knowledge, recognizing risky situations, and increasing children’s self-esteem. Further, the participants found it important to provide children with aftercare when a school program has ended. Overall, young child abuse survivors have a strong view on what should be addressed in school-based child abuse prevention programs to effectively prevent child abuse.
Highlights
This study examined the perspectives of young child abuse survivors on essential components in school-based child abuse prevention programs
Only one participant attended some form of school-based child abuse education, we found that child abuse education was considered very important by the young adults
This is in line with findings of a recent study in the Netherlands indicating that school-based child abuse prevention programs are hardly implemented in Dutch primary schools (Gubbels et al 2021a)
Summary
School-based programs are promising for primary child abuse prevention. Review studies showed positive effects of school-based prevention programs on abuse related knowledge, self-protection skills, and abuse disclosure (see, for example, Davis and Gidycz 2000; Topping and Barron 2009; Walsh et al 2018). Various Dutch school-based programs are available and child abuse education is considered an important prevention method by teachers and youth (Gubbels et al 2021a; Pieper and De Haan 2017). This qualitative study aimed to examine the perspectives of young child abuse survivors on school-based child abuse prevention
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